The group that last year gave the world the unexplodable lithium battery is back, this time using a combination of nanotubes, sulfur and an electrolyte additive to achieve what they say is a tenfold improvement in capacity.
In particular, the group, led by Stanford University’s Yi Cui, believes the sulfur-coated carbon …

Blame the chemists

Sulfur is the correct, internationally-agreed spelling for element 16. To quote the mad-book:

'IUPAC adopted the spelling sulfur in 1990, as did the Royal Society of Chemistry Nomenclature Committee in 1992.[43] The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority for England and Wales recommended its use in 2000,[44] and it now appears in GCSE exams.[45] The Oxford Dictionaries note that "In chemistry... the -f- spelling is now the standard form in all related words in the field in both British and US contexts"[46]'

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur#Spelling_and_etymology)

If it makes you happier, it's a one-all draw as the internationally agreed spelling for element 13 is 'aluminium'.

Don't be silly

It's the long and curly outer coat of the Lesser American Lingual Sully. The Lingual Sully (Soliens Lingua Destructor) also known as the Typographical Sully, the Dictionary Eater and the Vowel Vermine, is a tiny mammal approximately seven eighths of an inch from nose to tail, covered in tightly wound fur often referred to as "sulfur", which is capable of expanding by some thirty thousand times, making the Sully appear to be a huge elephant in the room. Its primary habitat is libraries, where it has a peculiar habit of eating ink from the pages of books, leaving a trail of misspellings and typographical errors in its wake. By "sullying language" in this way it earned its primary name. It is also sometimes referred to as Websters Muse.

On 24 November 2000 the Royal Society of Chemistry issued this press release, which accepts sulfur as the standard form, and which is presumably the base for the COD’s recommendation in 2001:

Sulphur or sulfur?

An internationally agreed nomenclature is essential for science. This ensures that scientists can communicate with each other clearly, and consistent nomenclature is increasingly important as scientific information is searched electronically. For chemistry the standards are agreed by IUPAC [International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry]. In 1990 it was recommended by IUPAC that the spelling of sulfur would use ‘f’ instead of ‘ph’ and at the same time the spellings aluminium and caesium were recommended instead of aluminum and cesium (the spellings in common use in the USA). Interestingly, in 18th and 19th century Britain it was commonplace for sulfur to be spelt with either an ‘f’ or ‘ph’.